hydrogen fuel cell Archives – The Green Optimistic

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Flying Car Reaches 400 Miles of Range

Matias Prieto — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 20:04:40 +0000

Massachusetts startup Alaka’i has designed a flying car that the company touts as the “first air mobility vehicle powered by hydrogen fuel cells”. On their promotion video, they announced that this flying car has ten times the power of conventional lithium batteries without compromising on carbon emissions. The hydrogen fuel cells give the five-passenger Skai a maximum […]

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World’s First Rechargeable Proton Battery Invented at RMIT in Australia

Janina Lazo-Cruz — Thu, 24 May 2018 19:18:47 +0000

Why Develop a Proton Battery? Enormous Potential With more improvements and modifications, the rechargeable proton battery developed at RMIT University has the potential to store much larger amount of energy than the currently available and widely used lithium-ion batteries. If scaled up, the technology can be applicable for medium-scale storage on electricity grids and for […]

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Solar Supercapacitor Generates Both Electricity and Hydrogen

Janina Lazo-Cruz — Sun, 03 Dec 2017 11:14:34 +0000

Hydrogen is a much cleaner option than other renewable energy sources, only if not derived from methane that involves carbon dioxide emission. Another limitation of hydrogen fuel cell is its feasibility to be mass produced, efficiency in energy conversion, and cost. For these reasons, a team of scientists from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) […]

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U.S. Navy Fuel Cells Produce More Fuel From Seawater

Courtney Lepping — Wed, 29 Jun 2016 03:36:06 +0000

The U.S. Navy is looking at a way to extract hydrogen from seawater while capturing carbon dioxide to be used in fuel cells. Fuel cells represent an efficient way of converting hydrogen to electricity without generating harmful byproducts. Current refueling operations at sea are risky, whereas the Electrolytic Cation Exchange Module would not require the […]

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EasyJet to Power Aircrafts with Hydrogen Fuel Cells

Mila Luleva — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 13:01:08 +0000

EasyJet, one of UK’s leading low cost airline companies, has announced their new plans to power planes with hydrogen fuel cells. Over the past few years, we (in Europe) witnessed an incredible boom of low cost airline companies, which offer cheap tickets to and from pretty much any destination around. With this arose the issue of carbon emissions from aviation, […]

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Japanese Consumers to Gain More Renewable Energy Options by 2020

Annika Tostengard — Tue, 01 Dec 2015 20:57:30 +0000

Tokyo has been picked as the location of the 2020 Summer Olympics, and the city hopes to showcase its commitment to renewable energy as part of the fanfare. If Tokyo’s plans move ahead on schedule, Japanese consumers will get 20% of their electricity from renewable sources including solar, hydrogen fuel cells, and hydropower. As the […]

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Hydrogen Fuel Cars Focus of Department of Energy Grant

Annika Tostengard — Sat, 10 Oct 2015 19:24:07 +0000

One of the major factors holding back hydrogen cars up until now has been storage. There is currently no economical way to store the gas onboard a vehicle. However, the Lawrence Livermore Nationa Laboratory aims to solve this problem as part of a tri-lab consortium working on new materials and tools to make hydrogen fuel […]

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Hydrogen From Ammonia to Power Fuel Cell Cars

Mila Luleva — Fri, 08 May 2015 19:40:29 +0000

In their search for cheap methods to produce hydrogen to power fuel cell cars, British scientists proposed to derive the precious element from readily available ammonia. The race for becoming the first car manufacturer to start selling fuel cell vehicles is more fierce than ever, with engineers and mechanics at Toyota, Honda, Hyundai and others working […]

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Why Hydrogen Cars are Less Efficient Than Electrics

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 13:42:58 +0000

The efficiency of hydrogen cars versus battery electrics has been debated for a long time in the past decade. However, despite of all that talk, these days Toyota unveiled the first widely-available commercial hydrogen fuel cell vehicle hybrid, the Toyota Mirai. I have nothing against hydrogen itself or the hydrogen cars currently produced – it’s […]

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Toyota Mirai is “The Future” of Toyota, Literally!

Benji Jerew — Tue, 18 Nov 2014 23:39:08 +0000

The culmination of decades of research and development, Toyota’s first mass-production hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, the Toyota Mirai, will start deliveries next month in Japan. Far from being a hydrogen fuel cell conversion vehicle, the Toyota Mirai was built from the ground up as a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. Twin 70 MPa hydrogen fuel tanks […]

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Fuel Cell Vehicle Myth Two – Fuel Cell Vehicles are Expensive

Benji Jerew — Wed, 23 Jul 2014 16:58:13 +0000

Here on The Green Optimistic, we love practically anything that reduces our footprint in the environment, such as hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, but there is plenty of misinformation out there that make people think they’re a bad deal. Maybe you heard once that a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, such as the upcoming Toyota FCV, cost […]

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Hyundai ix35 Fuel Cell Vehicle Gets “Up To” 80 MPGe

Benji Jerew — Thu, 17 Jul 2014 18:43:36 +0000

Instead of calling it the Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell, they’re calling it the Hyundai ix35 Fuel Cell, which is pretty much the same thing, except for those nasty gasoline emissions. According to the United States Hyundai website, the Hyundai ix35 Fuel Cell was to be sold in early 2014, and only in Southern California. Of […]

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“Portable” Hydrogen Fuel Cell to Reduce Emissions in Honolulu

Benji Jerew — Mon, 03 Mar 2014 19:17:37 +0000

In an effort to reduce idling ship emissions at port, a hydrogen fuel cell pilot project will provide power to ships, without burning a drop of fuel. Idling, from tractor-trailers to container ships, is simply a waste of fuel, generating emissions for now good reason. Unfortunately, the practice is ongoing, since onboard systems, such as […]

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Green Process Creates New Nanoporous Materials, UConn

Benji Jerew — Fri, 28 Feb 2014 17:06:08 +0000

As our knowledge of chemistry continues to advance, we keep finding new ways to apply the same basic elements. Finding a green process that is better than conventional means just makes it even better. Thanks to a $420,000 grand from the Us Department of Energy’s division of Basic Energy Sciences, researchers at the University of […]

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Hydrogen Fuel Production Costs Could Decrease with New Materials

Benji Jerew — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 13:33:11 +0000

As automakers improve their technology to reduce emissions, one technology that’s slowly coming to fruition is the hydrogen fuel cell. The fuel itself is another matter. In fact, we’ve seen a number of hydrogen fuel cell vehicle prototypes, some of which could be on the road as soon as 2015, in spite of the fact […]

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Future Hydrogen Fuel Stations Could be Cheaper

Benji Jerew — Thu, 26 Dec 2013 21:47:44 +0000

Aside from the price of the hydrogen fuel cell alone, another obstacle to a hydrogen future would have to be the lack of infrastructure. If you have a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, you have to stay pretty close to one of the less-than-500 hydrogen fuel stations in the world. For that reason, these vehicles have […]

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French Postal Service Testing Hydrogen Fuel Cell Range Extenders

Benji Jerew — Thu, 12 Dec 2013 15:52:10 +0000

The postal service in France, La Poste, will be testing hydrogen fuel cell range extenders in their fleet of electric vehicles. Making the switch from its current diesel-powered fleet of mail delivery vehicles, to electric vehicles, has only been a partial success for La Poste, the French postal service. The new electric vehicles, a fleet […]

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Supercapacitor Hybrid Electric Vehicles Even More Efficient

Benji Jerew — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 12:30:12 +0000

Researchers at the Electric Vehicle Symposium have presented some pretty compelling data that may change the way we see hybrid electric vehicles in the future. In their paper, “An Evaluation Study of Current and Future Fuel Cell Hybrid Electric Vehicles Powertrains,” eight researchers from Belgium presented the results of their studies. They compared the fuel […]

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Toyota Pursuing Lithium-Ion and Hydrogen Fuel Cell Future

Benji Jerew — Mon, 14 Oct 2013 21:12:32 +0000

What is the future of automobile powertrains? Whether lithium-ion or hydrogen fuel cell, or simply more efficient engines, Toyota doesn’t seem to quick to jump on any one technology. Considering its steps carefully, Toyota doesn’t seem to act as fast as other companies. On the other hand, the technology that Toyota brings to market are […]

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Stanford Microbial Battery Stores Electricity Generated From Sewage Water

Mila Luleva — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 14:29:30 +0000

In their search for alternative energy sources, scientists from Stanford University developed a mini power plant device, which uses microbes that are found in sewage systems. The study published in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows the potential of harvesting the electricity, which is naturally generated as these […]

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Hydrogen Fuel Cell Funding Still Available, DOE Grants $9 Million

Benji Jerew — Thu, 08 Aug 2013 14:31:24 +0000

One of the major factors that have enabled the development and commercialization of advanced powertrain systems, such as hydrogen fuel cells, has been federal backup, via grants, loans, and incentives. One might think that, after spectacular failures, such as A123 Systems and Fisker Automotive, the US Department of Energy [DOE] would be hesitant to dole […]

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Revolutionary Solar-to-Hydrogen Fuel Process Developed, but Why Bother?

Benji Jerew — Fri, 02 Aug 2013 17:22:27 +0000

We know that renewable energy, such as hydrogen fuel cell technology, could be the future of energy and transportation, but if it isn’t economically viable, then why bother? The answer, of course, is because it is the right thing to do. Researchers have spent decades researching ways to clean up our act with regards to […]

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21st Century Science “Toy” – Hydrogen Fuel Cell RC Car

Benji Jerew — Tue, 30 Jul 2013 13:45:13 +0000

Welcome to the 21st Century of toys: The Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies i-H2GO hydrogen fuel cell remote-controlled car. I remember growing up with science toys that were meant to teach us about advanced concepts, such as solar power, basic electronics, even basic aerodynamics and physics. OK, I may be overstressing the toy aspect of this […]

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Nitrogen-Doped Graphene Could Help Hydrogen Fuel Cells Get Cheaper

Mila Luleva — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 06:35:36 +0000

Researchers from the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), South Korea, developed a method, which provides cheap and environmentally friendly mean to create nitrogen-doped graphene nanoplatelets (NGnPs). The study published in the latest issue of Scientific Reports states that this technology could replace platinum-based catalysts used in dye-sensitized solar and fuel cells. Platinum-based […]

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Hydrogen Fuel Cells, Now as Durable as Conventional Engines

Benji Jerew — Fri, 28 Jun 2013 17:01:08 +0000

Aside from the expense of manufacturing a hydrogen fuel cell, ~$40,000 in the case of one Daimler fuel cell stack, lifespan is still lacking. If you compare engines and fuel cells, there is a distinct difference in cost and lifespan. Toyota builds their engines for a lifespan of 250,000mi, and I’ve owned and worked on […]

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Iodine Fuel Cell Catalyst More Efficient [and Cheaper!] than Platinum

Benji Jerew — Wed, 26 Jun 2013 18:58:20 +0000

If hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are ever going to make it mainstream, one thing that’s definitely going to be needed is a cheaper fuel cell. The problem, of course, is the balance between price and longevity. Cheaper fuel cells can be made, but then they don’t last very long. Platinum doesn’t corrode in a fuel […]

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Gold and Rust Unlikely Partners in Hydrogen Fuel Cells, Duke University

Benji Jerew — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:28:29 +0000

Hydrogen fuel cells generate electricity directly from hydrogen and generate zero carbon dioxide emissions, unlike conventional methods of electricity generation. In order to accomplish this feat, a catalyst in the hydrogen fuel cell starts and maintains the reaction. Hydrogen in the fuel, typically pure hydrogen gas, is combined chemically with oxygen from the atmosphere, generating […]

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Geobacter Bacteria Used to Create Electricity from Hydrogen and Carbon Dioxide

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:03:25 +0000

Researchers from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst have recently engineered Geobacter metallireducens, a bacterium that can feed with hydrogen and carbon dioxide to produce electricity. “This represents the first result of current production solely on hydrogen,” says Amit Kumar, who worked with Derek Lovely, the scientist who first isolated Geobacter metallireducens 26 years ago, in the Potomac River. […]

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California, Global Leader in Hydrogen Refueling Stations by 2016

Benji Jerew — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 15:48:31 +0000

Worldwide, there are just over 200 hydrogen refueling stations, which reflects the addition of just 27 stations in 2012. There are probably just as many hydrogen fuel cell vehicles on the road, which doesn’t include fleet operators with private hydrogen refueling stations. Still, this kind of progress is expected to be slow, just as the […]

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Hydrogen Fuel Generation – Breakthrough Catalyst Investigated in India

Benji Jerew — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 15:50:03 +0000

Hydrogen fuel used in hydrogen fuel cells, as a replacement for natural gas, or even in an internal combustion engine, burns clean and emits zero carbon dioxide. This is great news for those concerned about increasing carbon dioxide emissions, but the current-best method for generating hydrogen fuel isn’t very efficient. Electrolysis uses electricity to split […]

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Artificial Leaf Generates Hydrogen, Even in Contaminated Water

Benji Jerew — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 19:07:25 +0000

Daniel Nocera, previously of MIT and now Harvard, once called the artificial leaf “one of the Holy Grails of science,” but what if it was improved even further? In all green trees and plants, photosynthesis uses energy from the sun to split water into oxygen gas and hydrocarbons, that is, sugars which the tree uses […]

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BMW Proud of In-House Fuel Cells Used in Forklifts

Benji Jerew — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 18:06:30 +0000

While generalized hydrogen infrastructure is very slowly gaining ground on the nation’s highways, BMW fuel cell vehicles are already inhouse at BMW Spartanburg, South Carolina. A warehouse or manufacturing facility is the last place that you want to have an internal combustion engine running, which is why materials handling equipment, from fork trucks to man […]

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Iron-Based Fuel Cell Catalyst to Make Hydrogen Cars Cheap

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 19:07:40 +0000

An efficient iron-based fuel cell catalyst has been discovered by PNNL scientists. It uses a hydrogenase molecule to split hydrogen and create electricity. For years, scientists have been playing around with various alternatives to platinum, an expensive catalyst used in hydrogen fuel cells today to create electricity directly from hydrogen. Fortunately, platinum has the intrinsic […]

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Elon Musk on Hydrogen Fuel: “It makes no sense”

Benji Jerew — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 07:11:44 +0000

“Except for the upper stage of a rocket, hydrogen makes no sense,” Elon Musk, the parent of the battery-powered Roadster and Model S said in an e-mail interview to ScienceFriday. If there is anyone to ask about electric vehicles, it would be Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors. In fact, the second electric vehicle to […]

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Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles in the UK – Future in Doubt

Benji Jerew — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 16:30:29 +0000

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles may very well be the future, and administrators in the UK are expecting to have the first on the road by 2015. By 2030, they expect to have maybe 1.5 million on the road, which is pretty ambitious, to say the least. Of course, the fuel cell technology costs a bit […]

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New Platinum Electroplate Method Could Make Hydrogen Fuel Cells More Affordable

Benji Jerew — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 17:59:52 +0000

In order for the anode and cathodes in hydrogen fuel cells to survive, that is, do the job without degrading, they are covered with a material that needs to resist corrosion as well as conduct electricity. Unfortunately, some of the materials needed for such coatings, such as platinum, are expensive. Additionally, the processes used are […]

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Innovative Micro Fuel Cell Could Power Future Electronics

Benji Jerew — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 07:41:45 +0000

The first hydrogen fuel cells [HFC], much like the first mobile phones, were large, bulky, and expensive. Technologies in various fields, such as metallurgy, electronics, and chemistry, have made the mobile phone, not only smaller, but more available than ever before. With the advent of the smartphone, battery and smartphone manufacturers have been working to […]

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Mercedes-Benz’s Ener-G-Force Powered by Hydrogen Fuel Cells

Mike Sandru — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 19:41:07 +0000

The 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show brought some great new concepts this year. One of them is the Mercedes-Benz Ener-G-Force. Big and bully, like the oversized Hummers, the G-Force only looks like a notorious SUV. This model is equipped with fuel cells, whose only emission is water. Following the lines of the G-class models, back […]

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Hy9 and Altergy May Mainstream Hydrogen Fuel Cells

Leigh Hutchens — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 06:42:05 +0000

Hy9 and Altergy have announced a 3-year partnership and distribution agreement to develop and market a new integrated fuel processor for Altergy’s Freedom Power fuel cell system. Hy9 develops hydrogen systems and purifiers and Altergy develops proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells, potentially making this partnership very successful and appealing to multiple industries. Both companies […]

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Platinum-Cobalt Alloy Boosts Hydrogen Fuel Cell Output by 12

Janina Lazo-Cruz — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 15:33:54 +0000

A cost-effective new alternative to fuel cell’s catalyst have been developed at Cornell University, promising a 5X reduction in cost, an output of 12X more than the conventional platinum catalyst, and a high stability even after more than 5,000 cycles. An efficient and cheap hydrogen fuel cell would be an ideal renewable energy device as […]

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Fuel Cell Micro-CHPs Provide Efficient Power and Heat for Homes

Mila Luleva — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 21:08:52 +0000

Micro combined generation of heat and power (CHP) have been added to the qualities of fuel cells. These smaller scale CHPs can be used as a replacement of conventional household boilers or as an addition to gas and heating systems. Used either way, this energy efficiency technology could place Germany in a very favorable position […]

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New Conductive Polymer Coating to Dramatically Reduce Fuel Cell Cost

Janina Lazo-Cruz — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 05:00:32 +0000

HyperSolar Inc. has recently filed for a joint patent with University of California – Santa Barbara for a recent discovery on a polymer coating that acts as both protective and electrically conductive layer, which may find a broad field of applications, especially fuel cells. Unlike metals and semiconductors, polymers are intrinsically electrically non-conducting. That’s why […]

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Cobalt – Graphene Catalyst Might Replace Platinum in Hydrogen Fuel Cells

Mila Luleva — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 08:08:20 +0000

Platinum is undoubtedly quite an expensive element to use as a catalyst in hydrogen fuel cells. For that reason, scientists at Brown University are trying to find a cheaper material that can act in this same way and be just as effective. Shouheng Sun and a group of his students developed a catalyst for the […]

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Experimental Hydrogen Fuel Cell Train Built by Birmingham Researchers

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 18:28:52 +0000

An experimental train built by University of Birmingham researchers for the IMechE Railway Challenge is setting an example for how a hydrogen fuel cell-powered locomotive can carry 4 tons for a distance of 2.7 kilometers on 5000 liters of low-pressure hydrogen. The fuel cell train is not proving anything new here – electric trains already […]

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Scientists Discovering Why Nanoporous Gold Can Be a Good Fuel Cell Catalyst

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 15:11:39 +0000

An international team of scientists have made a breakthrough discovery by realizing why nanoporous gold (NPG) has a high catalytic activity and can be used for making fuel cells and durable catalytic converters, as opposed to bulk gold, which is inert. The team, comprising of Dr. Keith McKenna, from the University of York and other […]

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Airbus A320 to Be Equipped With Hydrogen Fuel Cells for Increased Efficiency

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 17:29:34 +0000

Though the hydrogen fuel cells used nowadays are not powerful enough that commercial aircraft engines can be replaced by them, it doesn’t mean that they are not effective enough to make air travel more efficient. Airbus flight tests have shown 15% decreases in fuel consumption. The environmental controls, entertainment system, and lights of the Airbus […]

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New Vanadium Oxide Fuel Cell Can Both Generate and Store Energy

Maria Reyes — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 14:04:28 +0000

It is now entirely possible for electrical gadgets to keep on running after fuel is depleted. Materials scientists at Harvard have developed a solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC) that uses hydrogen as fuel to generate electricity, but can store electrochemical energy like a battery as well. Recent advances in low-temperature operation allowed the thin-film SOFC to […]

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New Water-Splitting Catalyst 1000 Times Cheaper Than Platinum May Boost Hydrogen Economy

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 15:23:36 +0000

A new electrocatalyst developed at Brookhaven’s National Laboratory can finally make hydrogen fuel cell vehicles a viable reality and can bring cheap electricity for all (hopefully). The researchers discovered how a new form of catalytic nickel-molybdenum-nitride can successfully replace platinum, which sells at $50,000 a kilo these days. “We wanted to design an optimal catalyst […]

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New UK-Led Project Aims to Combine Biofuel and Microbial Cell in Cheap Fuel Cells

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 09 May 2012 17:16:57 +0000

Biofuel cells (BFCs) and microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are about to get a boost in efficiency thanks to a project aimed at creating hybrid electrodes. In this particular meaning, “hybrid” means that the UK-led project will combine inorganic with organic electrodes to make them more efficient and cheap, and avoid the use of platinum, nowadays […]

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Phoshporic Acid Fuel Cells Explained by International Team of Scientists

Guest Contributor — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 13:04:22 +0000

The molecular workings of a promising fuel cell electrolyte have been unraveled by chemists. A team of investigators from the New York University and the Max Planck Institute (Stuttgart) have revealed how protons migrate in phosphoric acid (H3PO4), a mineral acid, in a study published in Nature Chemistry. A mystery has always surrounded the understanding of […]

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German Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Completes 40,000 Hours Endurance Test, Exceeds Expectations

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 19:45:33 +0000

“Time will tell,” they say. Well, time has told good things about a planar solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) used in industrial purposes, which has recently completed and even exceeded 40,000 hours of continuous operation. The fuel cell, originally designed and built at the Jülich Institute of Energy and Climate Research in Germany, is operating […]

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Honda FCX Clarity to Also Be Used as Power Source for Homes

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 17:15:50 +0000

With the advent of smart grids, the world will be a better place, at least in what concerns power outages. Electric cars will take over the role of buffering the extra electricity and, when in their garages, they will be able to even cope with big outages. Honda, the company that designed the FCX Clarity, […]

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Osaka Student Team Creates Hydrogen-Powered Car From Scratch

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:51:21 +0000

Everyone started building battery-powered electric vehicles lately, but few are those who built cars whose power comes from hydrogen fuel cells. Such an example comes from a team of students at Osaka Sangyo University, who built a fuel cell-powered car from scratch, creating Japan’s first non-industrial team to ever accomplish this. Actually, they haven’t been […]

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Vitamin B12 Helps Scientists Build New Cheap Hydrogen Fuel Cells

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:08:42 +0000

Vitamin B12 has recently been determined as one of the many solutions for cheaper hydrogen fuel cells, that convert hydrogen into electricity and have water as their only output. Because they currently use platinum, hydrogen fuel cells are being expensive – much over the price of lithium ion batteries, for example. The research, performed by […]

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New Microbial Fuel Cell Generates Hydrogen in Self-Sustaining Fashion

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 10:21:26 +0000

Penn State University researchers have recently demonstrated a system that produces hydrogen from water. Nothing fancy so far. What’s interesting is that they use salt water, tap water, bacteria and membranes to make the process self-powered. Unlike the experiments performed so far, where bacteria inside watery solutions could produce hydrogen only in the presence of […]

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Catalonian Researchers Develop World's First RC Car That Runs on Recycled Soda Cans

Mike Sandru — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 19:44:01 +0000

We now get to witness the world's first remote-controlled car running on soda cans, roughly speaking, brought to us by Aleix Lovet and Xavier Saluena from the Catalonia Polytechnic Institute.

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SiGNa mobile H2: Water-Fueled Battery Recharges Your Gadgets Cheaply and Cleanly

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 18:24:53 +0000

SiGNa Chemistry Inc has created a kind of a battery that can be recharged with water. At first sight, there's something fishy with their mobile-H2 in the sense that it only needs water to operate and that's all. Ok, let's see some in-depth details of it.

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Hawaii Implementing Hydrogen Fueling Infrastructure In Collaboration With GM

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 20:06:00 +0000

A large scale partnership called H2I (Hawaii Hydrogen Initiative) is coming together as combined efforts are being made for the fueling infrastructure that will support the future face of the Hawaiian transportation system. Hydrogen fuel is the word of the day, as Hawaii expects thousands of fuel-cell vehicles to hit the market starting with 2015.

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Volvo Tests Petrol-Powered Fuel Cells For Extending EV Range

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 07:19:19 +0000

Volvo has been testing lately their newest innovation in the field of electric cars - an electric car range extender based on a hydrogen fuel cell powered by liquid organic fuels, such as petrol. In collaboration with Powercell Sweden AB, Volvo's range extender could take the EV for up to 250 kilometers more and at the same time only emit minute carbon dioxide quantities.

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Lung-Shaped Fuel Cell Decreases Platinum Usage, Increases Efficiency

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 19:45:13 +0000

An interesting case of biomimetrics comes from Norway's Academy of Science and Letters in Oslo, where Signe Kjelstrup designed a fuel cell having the interior structure similar to that of the lungs. This is a case where both the shape and the function were imported from naturally-developed organisms.

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VW Testing Hydrogen Fuel Cell Version of Bora on European Highways

Mircea Sandru — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 19:00:35 +0000

Volkswagen has recently tested two of their most advanced clean car technologies in a long-range drive, between France and Italy. The Volkswagen Bora HY.POWER and the SunFuel Bora TDI (Jetta in the U.S.) were successfully driven over the Simplon Pass, once again proving their efficiency.

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Honda Planning to Market Solar Powered Home-Based Hydrogen Refueler Starting 2015

Ovidiu Sandru — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 17:09:14 +0000

Having your hydrogen fuel cell car powered by some solar panels in your own backyard looks like a dream not able to come true in a lifetime for some. For others, this is already a reality and a long-term plan. Honda, GM, Toyota, Mercedes and several other car manufacturers, joined by fuel providers including Shell, look at home-based refueling stations quite seriously and plan to have the first ones implemented in as little as five years.

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Portable Fuel Cell Charger by Horizon, Now Available Commercially

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 10:23:22 +0000

Horizon, a fuel cell manufacturing company from Singapore, has recently unveiled a small hydrogen fuel cell charger that could juice your gadgets (PDA, phone, MP3, etc). It's called MiniPAK, and it uses refillable solid-state hydrogen cartridges (called HydroSTIK) to store its power.

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Scientists Use Palladium as Core to New Hydrogen Fuel Cell-Improving Nanoparticle

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 14:18:49 +0000

Hydrogen fuel cells generate electricity when fed with hydrogen, which combines with oxygen and results water. Still, hydrogen fuel cells are expensive due to the catalyst used in the cathode for the reaction known as oxygen reduction. That catalyst is 100% pure platinum, which is a rare and expensive material.

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New Metal Catalyst 70 Times Cheaper Than Platinum Splits Water Efficiently

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 03 May 2010 08:31:56 +0000

A team of researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley, has discovered a catalyst metal 70 times cheaper than platinum for use in electrolysis systems, to generate hydrogen from water.

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Horizon's Personal Hydrogen Storage Device to Be Unveiled at CES 2010

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:40:57 +0000

The device, called the "Horizon Hydrofill", manages to extract hydrogen from its own water tank and to store it in solid form in small refillable cartridges, by pluging it into the wall socket, connecting a solar panel or a small-sized wind turbine to it.

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Impressive Fuel Cell Stack on Kia Borrego FCEV Uses 98% of the Hydrogen

Cristi — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:13:05 +0000

The partnership between Kia and Hyundai resulted in some huge steps forward regarding fuel cell technology. Kia has just released some footage about their latest FCEV prototype called Borrego (Mohave for the Korean market).

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French Nickel Catalyst Promises Cheaper Hydrogen Fuel Cells

Ovidiu Sandru — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 22:02:09 +0000

A group of researchers from France revealed some tests in this week's issue of the journal Science that shows how platinum can be substituted with nickel, by mimicking the process going on in anaerobic-living algae. These have an enzyme, called hydrogenase, and use it to metabolize hydrogen.

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Scientists Researching Fuel Cell Powered by Sugars

Cristi — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:44:22 +0000

Researchers from Brigham Young University have a plan to make different fuel cells than those we actually know, and turn them into something very efficient and reliable. Their goal is to make a cheap fuel cell with a cheap catalyst, which can be even more efficient than a PEM and which can use something easier to make and store than hydrogen and which has no net emissions.

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Sub-Nano Platinum Particles Make Fuel Cells 13 Times Better

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:05:04 +0000

Nano-sized machinery makes me shiver. Thinking at a molecular and atomic level when speaking about technology makes me wonder even more. Even if I consider myself a logic person, extremely small and extremely large objects impress me.

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63% Efficient Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Developed by NGK

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 05:03:41 +0000

Highly efficient hydrogen fuel cells are wanted due to the high price the existing ones have so far. So, being efficient means less money spent on them, and more market share for hydrogen. SOFCs (solid oxide fuel cell) are a type of hydrogen fuel cell that use solid (not liquid) electrolyte to do their job, while being much more efficient.

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Sugar Cube-Sized Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

Mike Sandru — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:20:11 +0000

The world's smallest solid-oxide fuel cell(SOFC), as small as sugar cube, was recently developed by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). The sugar cube-sized SOFC is is operable at 550°C.

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Aberdeen Researchers to Find Low-Temp Fuel Cell Solutions

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 13:25:49 +0000

Current hydrogen fuel cells work at temperatures for up to 100°C for PEM types, and up to 300°C for SAFC (solid acid). The problem with these, although I don't agree with their developmental direction, is that they don't tolerate carbon very easily, and pure hydrogen is very hard to obtain from carbon-rich sources, such as methane or petrol.

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Superprotonic Solid Acid Fuel Cells: a Hidden, Cheap, Easy Way to Maintain Power Source

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 10:30:00 +0000

While nobody seems to speak much about them, solid acid fuel cells are actually a much cheaper way to produce energy from impure hydrogen sources, with much more flexibility than PEM fuel cells have.

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New Membrane by Chinese Scientist Can Make Fuel Cells Cheaper

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 04:20:07 +0000

Currently, platinum is used as a catalyst in hydrogen fuel cells, making them so expensive and hence unappetizing to customers. Lin Zhang, a Chinese scientist, has discovered a membrane that could make the usage of platinum history, and make fuel cells cheaper than ever.

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MRC-201: Water Powered Fuel Cell For the US Army

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 15:36:07 +0000

It's no wonder technology evolves so fast: the Army uses it first. For their needs, the US Army will equip their troops in isolated areas, without any source of energy with a different kind of fuel cells: ones you put water in. The device's name is also military: MRC-201.

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Power Air`s Batteries Use Zinc as Fuel: Cheaper Alternative to Li-Ion

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:33:57 +0000

A California company, named "Power Air" wants to introduce a fuel cell to the market next year. It has the size of a BlackBerry, and uses zinc as a fuel to charge your gadgets.

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Honda FCX Clarity – the first viable hydrogen fuel cell car

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:01:43 +0000

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